Baseball and peanuts

After a blog post about the comic “Peanuts” and baseball, I thought it would be nice to describe how peanuts became a common thing in baseball.

We all know the verse of “Take me out to the ballgame”, “Buy me some peanuts and crackerjacks.” Since this song is from 1908 it means that the legume is part of the game for at least 111 years.

Especially those who have visited an MLB game have heard vendors shouting “Peanuts. Peanuts here!!” Of course, you have peanut sellers who make a show like the ones shown in the attached clips.

https://youtu.be/U3Ask792az8

But how did the treat got involved in baseball? Peanuts and baseball in America have been thick as thieves since the late 19th century. At that time, baseball was widely recognized as the national past time and peanuts became a common thing at ballparks.
A pioneering ballpark concessioner, Harry Stevens, sold advertising space on scorecards to a peanut company in 1895. Instead of financial payment, the company paid him in peanuts, which Stevens then sold at the ballparks.

Why were peanuts such a hit at stadiums? Stevens’ grandson said, “They’ve never been popular at race tracks because people need to keep their hands free for betting. In baseball, the tension builds slowly. Eating peanuts is part of a nervous habit—it gives you something to do with your hands.”

Even though peanuts are an inseparable treat in nowadays ballparks, the selling of the legumes did not start in the ballpark itself. It started at the corners of the streets surrounding the ballparks.

Nowadays, there is a variety of peanuts that are sold. Hampton Farms, the largest supplier of in-shell peanuts to baseball stadiums, sells more than 3.7 million bags of ballpark peanuts every year. Fans of the Dodgers, Royals, Astros, Angels, and Mets eat the most in-shell peanuts at the ballpark. At AT&T Park in San Francisco, there’s a freshly roasted peanut stand that has its own roasting machine where you can see and smell the fragrant peanuts whirling around as they roast. For a true taste of the South, boiled peanuts are offered at Tropicana Field, home of the Tampa Bay Rays.

But with the growing number of peanut allergies, a change seems to be at hand. Nut allergies are nasty, even life-threatening, for many of those who suffer from them. As a result, there’s been a major push in the last decade to get peanut butter out of schools and airplanes and even out of ballparks. Since it is almost impossible to provide a peanut free environment in an open-air place like a baseball stadium several clubs have offered to reach out to the baseball fans with peanut allergies by providing peanut-controlled seating for selected games. The Boston Red Sox, for example, have offered peanut allergy friendly games in 2018. But there are more clubs that make an effort so people with peanut allergies can go to a ballgame.

But not only MLB clubs are offering people with peanut allergies the possibility to visit games baseball games. The Hartford YardGoats, AA farm team of the Colorado Rockies, will ban peanuts from their menu in 2019. After a talk with a fan who wanted a few peanut-free games, so he and his children could watch a game, the YardGoats even went a bit further: no more peanuts, Cracker Jack or any other food that could put kids with the potentially deadly peanut allergy in anaphylactic shock. Yard Goats President Tim Restall says he has two nephews with food allergies, and the team’s decision was not made to get publicity or drive up business.

Nevertheless, it is unlikely that peanuts will be banned from the ballparks completely.